The Opelousas courier., 1887-02-19
TOLD BY EXPLORERS.
Remarkable Stories OF Recen
Explorations.
A Tribe in the Interior Of Africa which
Manufactures Gunpowder.

It happens now and then that an e.
plorer makes a sensational and wholly
unexpected discovery. Several unique
facts with regard to certain tribes of
savages have recently been asccrtained.
Mr.. w. Montagu Kerr, for instance,
has found among the Makorikori tribe
in Africa, whom he is the first to de-
scribe, %gunpowder which they make
themselves for use in the fl nt-lock mus
kets which they obtain from native
traders.
This tribe live far from the east coast
and quite distance south of the Fam
best river. Their gunpowder burns
slowly, and its explosive force is far in
ferior to that Of ours, but it answers
their purpose very we'll. They mix the
tfiorescence Of saltpetre with charcoal
which they make from the bark of the
mufati tree. This mixture is baked in
an earthern pot for several hours, and
then it is pulverized and spread in the
sunlight, where it is left for some time.
1t is not at all likely that the Makori-
koris, like the Chinese, discovered the
art of making gunpowder. Their
fathers doubtless learned it from the
Portuguese or from slaves who had
lived among white men on the coast.
We hear strange things onco i'll a while
of African tribes, but it was hardly to
be expected that a wholly unknown
tribe, hcmmed in by tie mountains of
inner Africa, would be found engaged
in the manufacture Of g%unpowde".
A few years ago Lieutenant Wissmann
came home and told u remarkable story
about tribes he had met with south of
the Congo river, who were far more
civilized than most African peoples. Ills
report Is now fully confirmed by the
travels in the same region of Lieutenants
Kund and Tappcnbeck. They found
last year, between the Congo and the
Saukuru EVER, many street villages,
with large, g~ablc-roofed huts standing
squareiy on either side of
the street, Inhabited by brown
isE-red, fine looking people.
Thcse" villagers have advanced notions of
comfort; they sleep on wooden bed
steads, instea | of on the floor. Their
homes arc the largest yet found in Africa,
and are kept clean; their streets are
about fifty yards wide, sometimes two
OR three miles long, AMI are carefully
swept. Refuse of all sorts is taken away
and thrown into piss dug for the pur-
pose. They are c.cver hunters and train
their dogs to follow game; they carve
pestles out of ivory for pounding manioc
and they have astonishing skill as wood
carvers. Lieutenant Kund brought
home two wooden cups representing
negro heads, which might readily lie
taken for European products. owing to
their superior workmanship. Behind tn
houses of this populous Zenge tribe are
neatly kept gardens and plantations of
bananas.
When Lieut.. Holm visited an isolated
settlement Of East Grecnlanders two
years ago he was astonished to find
among these natives, of whom the world
had never heard, walrus spears of which
the handles were made of wood, although
no timber grew there, and the points of
hoop-iron. He ascertained that the sea
had brought these useful CON-
modities to the poor Esquimanx in the
shape of wreckage and iron-bouud
boxes.
1t has recently been shown that in
rarts of Chill where European trees and
plants have been introduced the native
fora is actually disappearing and the
imported vegetation is furnishing in its
place. Explorers are often surprised to
sec the familiar plants AMI fruits of other
growing as exotics where they
not dream of finding them. Kerr
discovered the tomato in the far interior
Of Africa, and schweinfurth was much
astonished to find tobacco in the heart
the continent, where it was raised and
by natives who had rover heard
lis American home, though the name
BY which the weed was known among
tribes was doubtless derived from
our name for it.-New York Sun.
Heart Disease and HuarO.
Almost every day we hear of persons
lying Of s.hcart disease.n In most cases,